Dave Valentine

For the American Jazz flautist, see Dave Valentin.
Dave Valentine
Valentine with rugby league's World Cup, 1954
Full name David Donald Valentine
Date of birth 12 September 1926
Place of birth Hawick, Roxburghshire, Scotland
Date of death 14 August 1976(1976-08-14) (aged 49)
Place of death Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Rugby league career
Position Second-row, Loose forward/Lock
Professional clubs
Years Club / team Caps (points)
1947–1957 Huddersfield 356 (216)
National teams
Years Club / team Caps (points)
1948–1954
1949–1955
1949–1952
1954
Great Britain
Other Nationalities
British Empire XIII
Combined Nationalities
15
16
2
1
(6)
(12)
(3)
(0)
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position Flanker
Professional / senior clubs
Years Club / team Caps (points)
Hawick RFC
National team(s)
Years Club / team Caps (points)
1947 Scotland 2 (0)

David Donald Valentine (12 September 1926 – 14 August 1976)[1] was a Scottish representative rugby union and Rugby League World Cup winning footballer, a dual-code rugby international of the 1940s and 1950s.

Rugby union

He made his rugby union international debut as a flanker for Scotland against Ireland in the 1947 Five Nations Championship and was also selected in the fixture that year against England.

His older brother Alec Valentine also played for Scotland,[2] and his younger brother Rob played rugby union for South of Scotland, and later switched to rugby league playing for Great Britain.

In October 1947 Valentine signed to play rugby league with English club Huddersfield, where he would join another five ex-Hawick players.[3]

Rugby league

Valentine's rugby league career was with the Huddersfield club where he played as a Loose forward. He played in all three Tests of the 1948–49 victorious Ashes series.

He played for the British Empire XIII versus New Zealand on Wednesday 23 January 1952 at Stamford Bridge and in the 2nd and 3rd Tests of the 1952 Ashes series.

Dave Valentine played Loose forward/Lock in Huddersfield's 15–10 victory over St. Helens in the 1952–53 Challenge Cup final at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 25 April 1953.[4]

In 1954 Valentine was selected for Great Britain's tour of Australia playing in all three Tests. He was also the British squad captain for their successful 1954 Rugby League World Cup campaign, playing in all four matches and hoisting the Cup as the victorious skipper following Great Britain's 16–12 victory at Parc des Princes in the final over France, in front of a huge 31, 000 crowd.

Dave Valentine also represented Great Britain while at Huddersfield between 1952 and 1956 against France (1 non-Test match).[5]

All told he earned eleven Test caps in addition to the four World Cup appearances.

Valentine played Loose forward/Lock, and was captain in Huddersfield's 4–11 defeat by Bradford Northern in the 1949 Yorkshire Cup final during the 1949–50 season at Headingley Stadium, Leeds on Saturday 29 October 1949, played Loose forward/Lock, played Loose forward/Lock, scored a try, and was captain in the 18–8 victory over Batley in the 1952 Yorkshire Cup final during the 1952–53 season at Headingley Stadium, Leeds on Saturday 15 November 1952, played Loose forward/Lock, and was captain in the 15–8 victory over York in the 1957 Yorkshire Cup final during the 1957–58 season at Headingley Stadium, Leeds on Saturday 19 October 1957, and played Loose forward/Lock, and was captain in the 10–16 defeat by Wakefield Trinity in the 1960 Yorkshire Cup final during the 1960–61 season at Headingley Stadium, Leeds on Saturday 29 October 1960.

Valentine's Testimonial match at Huddersfield took place in 1956. He retired in 1957, having made 356 appearances for Huddersfield.[6]

His grandson, also called Dave Valentine, plays pool with Billy Elliott for the Marshall Construction amateur lunch league.

Post-playing

Since 2004, the management of the Scotland national rugby league team have given the Dave Valentine Award to their player of the year.

Arriva Yorkshire honoured 13 rugby league footballers on Thursday 20 August 2009, at a ceremony at Wheldon Road, the home of the Castleford. A fleet of new buses were named after the 'Arriva Yorkshire Rugby League Dream Team'. Members of the public nominated the best ever rugby league footballers to have played in West Yorkshire, supported by local rugby league journalists; James Deighton from BBC Leeds, and Tim Butcher, editor of Rugby League World. The 'Arriva Yorkshire Rugby League Dream Team' is; Trevor Foster MBE, Neil Fox MBE, Albert Goldthorpe, Alan Hardisty, Stan Kielty, Lewis Jones, Roger Millward MBE, Malcolm Reilly, Garry Schofield, Keith Senior, David Topliss, Dave Valentine, and Adrian Vowles.[7]

References

  1. Griffiths, John (1987). The Phoenix Book of International Rugby Records. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. pp. 12:20. ISBN 0-460-07003-7.
  2. Bath, p138
  3. Davidson, Jack (26 October 2013). "Scot who held Rugby League World Cup aloft". scotsman.com. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  4. McCorquodale, London S.E (25 April 1953). The Rugby League Challenge Cup Competition – Final Tie – Huddersfield v St. Helens – Match Programme. Wembley Stadium Ltd. ISBN n/a
  5. Edgar, Harry (2007). Rugby League Journal Annual 2008 Page-110. Rugby League Journal Publishing. ISBN 0-9548355-3-0
  6. Gronow, David (2008). 100 Greats: Huddersfield Rugby League Football Club. Stroud: Stadia. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-7524-4584-7.
  7. "Arriva Yorkshire Rugby League Dream Team". Arriva Yorkshire. 20 August 2009. Retrieved 20 August 2009.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/16/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.